Annals of the Academy of Romanian Scientists Series on Engineering Sciences ISSN 2066 – 8570 Volume 5, Number 2/2013 23 INTARSIA – CUTTING-EDGE PROCESSING METHODS Camelia COŞEREANU1, Lumininiţa Maria BRENCI2, Adriana FOTIN3 Rezumat. Lucrarea îşi propune să prezinte un ornament utilizat în decorarea pieselor de mobilier stil, a cărui realizare clasică presupune multă muncă manuală, răbdare şi talent artistic. Sunt prezentate elementele generale privind realizarea intarsiei, stilurile de mobilier în care aceasta a fost utilizată ca ornament, metoda clasică de obţinere, precum şi tehnici artistice aplicate. În antiteză cu varianta clasică se prezintă metoda modernă de obţinere a intarsiei şi anume procedeul de tăiere a furnirului cu laser, analizând totodată avantajele aplicării acestui procedeu în obţinerea unei lucrări de intarsie de calitate superioară. Procedeul modern de tăiere cu laser a furnirelor în vederea realizării lucrărilor de intarsie reprezintă un imbold pentru fabricanţii de mobilă în revigorarea exportului de mobilă de artă, atât de apreciată odinioară peste hotare, dar al cărei preţ îngloba o manoperă extrem de ridicată. Abstract. This paper aims at presenting an ornament used to decorate the art furniture, whose classic realization requires a lot of manual labor, patience and artistic talent. General elements about the way of obtaining the inlaid veneer named intarsia are presented, continuing with the styles of art furniture where it was used for decoration purpose, the classical method and artistic techniques used by the manufacturers. In contrast to the classic method, the modern one is presented, namely the process of veneer cutting by laser beam, together with the benefits of applying this method to obtain a high quality intarsia work. The up-to-date method of laser cutting of veneers in order to obtain intarsia decoration has to be an impulse for the manufacturers in order to reinvigorate the art furniture export, furniture so much appreciated abroad in the past, but whose price included an extremely high workmanship. Keywords: intarsia, marquetry, art furniture, technique, laser beam 1. Introduction Mosaic, marquetry, intarsia are decoration techniques that resort to incrustation; the raw materials differing in each particular case, both for the underlying board and for the inlaid veneers. The incrustation technique implies decoration by application of valuable materials (gemstones, pearl, ivory, bone, precious metals, glass, porcelain, ceramic, tortoise shell, veneers or wood pieces) on less precious underlying surfaces (wood, stone, metals), being used both in civil engineering (in order to array walls and floors), and in decorating objects (weapons, cassettes, jewels, etc.) and furniture. 1Prof. Assist, Dr., Eng., Transylvania University of Braşov (e-mail: [email protected]). 2Prof. Assist, Dr., Eng., Transylvania University of Braşov (e-mail: [email protected]). 3Lecturer, Dr. Eng., Transylvania University of Braşov (e-mail: [email protected]). 24 Camelia Coşereanu, Lumininiţa Maria Brenci, Adriana Fotin With applicability in civil-engineering, the art of the mosaic is an ancient method of artistic expression devised by the human being. The proof thereof dates back in the third millennium b.Ch. in Mesopotamia, where patchworks out of coloured stone, pearl and ivory, disposed in geometric drawings, were discovered, in the temple ruins of Abra (Fig. 1). The art of the mosaic was perfected in India (the renowned mosaics of Bombay) and was taken over by the Antique artists of the Roman and Greek Empires, enjoying special flourishing during the Byzantine Empire, when it replaced painting in architectural decoration. Fig. 1. The first mosaics, dating back in the 3rd millennium b.Ch. (Mesopotamia). Marquetry, a particular case of mosaic, has become an appraised and frequently used technique, since the XVIth century, in Florence and Naples, where marble, jasper and other coloured semiprecious stones were used, in order to construct facades and pavements. An eloquent example to this effect is Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence. Nevertheless, the technique of marquetry reached its artistic apogee, with the use of wood as support material, especially in furniture decoration. Fig. 2. Flemish cabinets (Anvers, cca. 1650). a. walnut, with incrustations of b. ebony, with painted panels and tortoise shell and ebony incrustations of ivory http://www.christies.com, http://www.culture24.org.uk. Intarsia – Cutting-Edge Processing Methods 25 The first workshops to have used and developed this modality of decoration for art furniture, were the Flemish ones, from Anvers, by the year 1600, where the so- called Flemish cabinets were achieved, whose underlying material consisted generally of ebony, walnut, with incrustations of tortoise shell, ivory, pearl, silver etc. (Fig. 2). The masters of this art would be known as ebony cabinet-makers, as a consequence of their using ebony wood, in constructing these types of cabinets. Marquetry, imported in France in late XVII-th century, reached its artistic apogee therein, during the cabinet-maker André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), who has been reckoned the greatest artist to have made luxury cabinets, and who was allowed, during the king Louis XIV, to organize his workshops at the Louvre. André-Charles Boulle was allegedly influenced in the technique of marquetry by his father-in-law, Pierre Golle (1644-1684), a Flemish cabinet-maker, who was working at the royal ateliers Gobelins, which were providing Versailles palace with tapestries and decorative elements, inclusively furniture; the atelier had been bought upon request of king Louis XIV and brought together masters of the decorative art. The Flemish technique of the incrustation with metals and precious elements was nevertheless much surpassed by the genius of Boulle, who introduced tin and lead alloys in order to cast metallic decorative elements and likewise developed the inlaid veneers from varied wood species, in ever more intricate designs, for the cabinet fronts, with doors or drawers. The technique of marquetry, specific to the French Baroque style of furniture (style Louis XIV) and to school initiated by Boulle would bear his name over the centuries (Fig. 3). Fig. 3. Cabinet André-Charles Boulle (1675) in walnut, with incrustation of silver, pearl and other wood species http://www.wga.hu Therefore, from Baroque, the inlaid veneers, out of various wood species, of an ever-richer colour palette, had developed and been increasingly used in furniture decoration, for three centuries. This technique of the incrustation, which resorts only to veneers, is called intarsia and yields absolutely plan ornaments. Boulle’s 26 Camelia Coşereanu, Lumininiţa Maria Brenci, Adriana Fotin technique spread across Europe, and intarsia is also suggestive of English baroque (Queen Anne style – Fig. 4) and later on, of the French rococo (style Louis XV – 1735-1770), English rococo (Chippendale style), (Fig. 5), French neoclassicism (Louis XVI style and subsequently, by 1830, Empire style) as well as English (Sheraton – 1751-1786 and Regency – 1769-1830), (Fig. 6), English classicism (Victorian eclectic style by late XIXth century), as well as Spanish (eclectic Isabelino) and German (Biedermeier style), prior to Art Nouveau style (Art 1900) by early XXth century, where intarsia appears less frequently and delicately decorates the tabletops, where applicable (Fig. 7). Fig. 4. English Baroque art furniture (Queen Anne style) using intarsia technique. Fig. 5. Rococo art furniture resorting to intarsia technique. a. Louis XV (French rococo); b. Chippendale (English rococo). Fig. 6. Art furniture pertaining to Neoclassicism, decorated with intarsia. a. Louis XVI style; b. Empire style; c. Sheraton style. Intarsia – Cutting-Edge Processing Methods 27 Fig. 7. Art furniture from the XIX-XXth centuries, which resorts to intarsia technique. a. German classicism b. English classicism; c. Art Nouveau style. – Biedermeier style – Victorian style 2. Intarsia technique. Classical method A specificity of intarsia, besides its being manufactured of veneers, is its achievement, which supposes separately piecing on the intarsia constituents and subsequently applying them on the frame. The component elements of the intarsia can be seen in Fig. 8. 1 2 3 4 Fig. 8. The constituents of the intarsia work; 1- composition; 2 – background; 3 – netting; 4 – frame. An original ornament, made by the intarsia technique, specific to the styles of art furniture may be easily reproduced nowadays, by cutting-edge techniques: scanning, photographing, then copying in AUTOCAD and drawing; eventually, the drawing on a 1:1 scale being obtained. With a view to deepening the intarsia technique, we choose a model for us to follow herein (Fig. 9). The orientation of the veneer structure for the frame and background, as well as the choice of their colours, of the netting and of the veneers in the composition, are made in accordance with the original, choosing the adequate wood species for the required nuances and contrast. 28 Camelia Coşereanu, Lumininiţa Maria Brenci, Adriana Fotin Fig. 9. Reproduction of an original ornament by scanning, copying in AUTOCAD and drawing. The colouristic and contrast potential of the wood is being exemplified, only by a few nuances, in Fig. 10. Fig. 10. Colour and contrast potential of the wood. In the reproduction phase (design) of an intarsia work, this study of colours is highly important, so that the desired aesthetic effect might be obtained.